Peanuts by Charles Schulz for July 19, 1956
July 18, 1956
July 20, 1956
Transcript:
Lucy and Violet are walking pass the fence. Violet says, "My great-grandmother had fifteen children.."<br> <br> Lucy replies, "Fifteen? Wow!"<br> <br> She says, "Think of the Laundry she must have had to do.."<br> <br> She concludes, "I'll bet her automatic washer was going night and day!"<br> <br>
I imagine less than half of those fifteen survived to adulthood. Their great-grandparents’ children would have been born at around the late 19th or early 20th centuries, long before the development of many advances in medical science we take for granted today. It’s likely that many of them had died from diseases like smallpox, diphtheria, influenza, measles, tetanus, or others before their tenth birthday. That’s why they tended to have so many children back in those days: way too many of them would have probably died young from disease.